Ontario to get $7.8 billion for infrastructure with new framework agreement with Ottawa
Ontario to get $7.8-billion for infrastructure - Ottawa to announce spending today as province signs framework agreement; subway extension not included
KAREN HOWLETT AND DANIEL LEBLANC
July 24, 2008
TORONTO, OTTAWA — The federal government will announce today that it is inking a deal with Ontario to spend $7.8-billion in the province on public transit, roads and bridges as part of its plan to maintain and expand the country's infrastructure systems, sources say.
The Ontario government will sign an agreement under Ottawa's infrastructure plan, called Building Canada, which will see the Harper government spend $33-billion over seven years on infrastructure projects across the country.
Ontario will become the latest province to reach a so-called framework agreement with Ottawa, which will set out how it will use its $7.8-billion share of the funding, federal and provincial sources said.
British Columbia was the first province to reach an accord. Only three provinces - Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec - have not yet signed deals.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, is to make the announcement at a news conference in London, Ont., today. Their provincial counterparts - Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and George Smitherman, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal and Energy, are also to be on hand.
This will be the first time Mr. Flaherty shares the stage with Mr. Duncan since the federal minister began waging a highly public fight with the McGuinty government earlier this year over its management of the Ontario economy.
Asked if this is an attempt to patch up their differences, a provincial source said: "I wouldn't read too much into that," he said. "It shows a partnership between Ottawa and the province."
Mr. Duncan and Mr. Smitherman will announce that they will use a portion of the federal funding for a major clean-water project in London and surrounding areas, the sources said. Other federal and provincial ministers will be on hand in Cornwall, Ont., and Kenora, Ont., to unveil infrastructure projects for those cities.
But a multimillion-dollar plan to extend the Spadina subway line into the Toronto area's rapidly growing York Region will not be part of today's announcement. A source said the completion of the subway agreement is expected in late summer or early fall.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said that he had thought the federal government would hold a news conference on the Spadina subway in the first week of July.
"I don't want to find fault here," Mr. McGuinty said earlier this month. "Other issues seem to be clouding this major priority," he said, referring to other infrastructure projects.
Speculation around the provincial legislature is that the Harper government wants to time completion of the Spadina deal to the next federal election, which could happen as early as this fall. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion hinted yesterday that a fall election centred around his party's Green Shift plan for combatting global warming is on the horizon.
Ottawa's $697-million contribution to the $2-billion subway extension is part of $1.5-billion in funding the Harper government announced in March, 2007, for Toronto-area public transit projects. A spokeswoman for Mr. Cannon denied earlier this month that Ottawa was dragging its feet on the subway project to announce the funding closer to an election.
About $12-billion of the new federal spending on infrastructure comes in the form of a pledge to continue the practice, initiated by the previous Liberal government, of sharing money from gas taxes with municipalities until 2010.